The Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice Evidence-based practice is a cornerstone of effective patient care (Mateo & Kirchhoff, 2009). The robustness of any existing body of evidence is only as useful as the ability of advance practice nurses to access, retrieve, and implement that knowledge in the practice environment. Therefore, nurses need systematic and comprehensive strategies for making information available to colleagues. Nurses also need their administrators to invest in the latest tools and technologies that promote evidence-based practice including networks and information systems. Policies and procedures should not only uphold the tenets of evidence-based practice but also make it easier for nurses to find and share knowledge specific to developing practice behaviors in their care environments. Methods of finding knowledge specific to developing practice behaviors include utilizing proprietary databases, interviewing experts in the field, and utilizing online digital resources. Combining these three methods of knowledge acquisition can make research more robust and applicable to the practice environment.

Step One: Identify the Population

Advance practice nursing requires the identification of population variables related to health outcomes (Curley & Vitale, 2012). The theory behind population-based nursing is that similar populations respond similarly to similar treatment interventions, just as diverse populations may respond differently to the same intervention (Curley, 2012). Population-based nursing is evidence-based,...

Advance practice nurses identify population variables through communication with patients, families, colleagues, and administrators.
By identifying the population as the first step in evidence-based practice, advance practice nurses can also find information specific to necessary treatment interventions or practice behaviors. As Dieterle & Hooper-Lane (2009) point out, nursing and healthcare research is often classified or tagged according to specific populations. To maintain internal and external validity, empirical research will focus on specific populations, defining those populations in order to rule out extraneous variables that might be implicated in the results. Therefore, nurses that identify population as the first step in evidence-based practice also facilitate the rapid retrieval of recent and relevant research to the practice environment.

Step Two: Collecting the Right Data

After the advance practice nurse identifies the population and initiates research into the treatment area, the next step is to collect the appropriate data and amalgamate it into usable knowledge specific to developing practice behaviors. Advance practice nurses collect data from a number of different information systems made available through the healthcare institution. However, the open access movement has also meant that an abundance of peer-reviewed nursing papers are available online for free (Dieterle & Hooper-Lane, 2009). To prefer for effective data collection…